Milwaukee Ale House; A Brew City Bright Spot!

Recently I had the opportunity to head to Milwaukee to perform a show with my band, Marked 4 Deletion. Milwaukee is one of my absolute favorite cities. The water, the architecture, the festivals, and of course the BEERS!

(The taps!)

This time I decided to hit up The Milwaukee Ale House with my drummer and our beautiful wives for lunch. I had read the menu online a bit earlier, and honestly I will have to admit that what sold me was how great the food sounded!

(Brewery at MKE Ale House)

To set the stage, let me tell you about the place itself. Milwaukee Ale House is a restaurant/taproom/brewpub in Downtown Milwaukee along the river. Inside the Ale House there are tons of taps, lots of wood, and tons of space. There is even a nice sized stage for entertainment. This is a really nice clean place perfectly decorated that tiptoes the lines between taproom, restaurant, and night club.

(MKE Stage)

We sat outside on their beautiful second story deck overlooking the Milwaukee River. I have had a lot of beers at a lot of places in Milwaukee, but this patio has to be one of the best spots to enjoy a cold one and a bite to eat. You can even go straight from the patio down to the river walk and work off your extra calories after dinner. Heck, they even have a few boat slips if you are on the river and want to stop in for a beer or some food.

For my first beer I tried a Sonne Weisse, while Vicky had the Columbian Siason. The Sonne Wiesse is a hazy berliner style weisse beer that had a nice tartness to it from the lactobacillus that was balanced by a sweetness that was achieved by the use of strawberries during this beer’s cellaring, which interestingly came across only as sweetness, not actual strawberry taste. I will say, this beer had significantly less bubbly carbonation than I am used to a berliner weisse having. This was a great tasting, refreshing, easy drinking beer. As is I would drink it again for sure, with a touch more sparkling carbonation I would drink it by the bucket!

(Columian Saison on the left, Sonne Weisse on the right)

Next, the food came. I ordered the Duck Sliders. Hot damn these were good! BBQ duck confit using Louie’s Demise BBQ sauce on local mini pretzel buns with apple slaw and goat cheese. First off, I am a sucker for anything on a pretzel bun. I’ve never even seen mini pretzel buns. They were dynamite! Kudos, Milwaukee Pretzel Co. The duck was perfect, the apple slaw worked with the BBQ sauce awesomely, and goat cheese was the absolute correct cheese pick for these mini pieces of heaven!

(Duck Sliders and Sweet Potato Fries)

I washed down my sliders with a Pull Chain. Pull Chain is a citrusy, hoppy IPA. It wasn’t a bitey hoppy, but instead had a nice smoothness to it. Carbonated perfectly. This was a really good IPA and my favorite beer of the visit.... Not just the visit to Milwaukee Ale House, but my favorite from the whole trip to Milwaukee!

(Increased Wheat on the left, Pull Chain on the right)

Vicky opted to stay on the healthy side of things and had a hummus wrap, which she said was really good. Hummus just ain’t my thing, but she loved it! She had the increased wheat with it, which is a berliner weisse with gooseberries. I didn’t try this one, but it sounds great. Wheaty, tart, sweet... What’s not to like?

(Hummus Wrap)

Great view, great place, great food, and great tasting beer all in an awesome city! Milwaukee Ale House; come for the food, stay for the beer... wait... come for the beer, stay for the food... wait... ummm...  Either way just go there and you will love it!

Sand Creek Brewing Co. Pit Stop

On a recent road trip through Wisconsin (which between heading to the shack, driving to shows for my band, or heading to a beer event seems to be every weekend with me) we made a pit stop at Sand Creek Brewing Company. Sand Creek Brewing Company is Wisconsin’s third largest microbrewery! That is pretty impressive anywhere, but is even more impressive in the relatively small town of Black River Falls.

The brewery was built in the mid 1800’s for The Oderbolz Brewing Company. It’s a pretty cool old building with tons of history. After becoming several different businesses during and after prohibition, the building was hit by a fire that destroyed a couple of the top floors. You can even see the different bricks used to rebuild the damaged floors of the building. I love a brewery with some history to it!

The taproom itself was fairly small. But while it may not be the right size for a big city brewery, it was perfect for a smaller town. We had no problem getting a beer right away nor did we have any problems finding a place to sit down and take a load off while enjoying our beer.

And ohhhhhh the beer! Well I should say the beer and the hard lemonade. That is a fairly unique thing at a craft brewery, a craft hard lemonade. And actually they make two. They have a regular hard lemonade and a hard pomegranate lemonade. Vicky started with the pomegranate lemonade. It is great stuff! Fruity, tart, and refreshing, and tastes nothing like its corporate mass produced counterparts. It makes me think they could pour a mean shandy using one of their craft beers and their craft hard lemonades!

I started with a Noir. You beer snobs out there may get on me about this... I know, light to dark – light to dark... But I have a soft spot for barley wines. I love em. I must have them when I find them. And this time of year they can be hard to find, so I couldn’t help myself! Noir is a barrel aged barley wine. It was dark, sweet ‘n malty, with a nice hop presence. Good and drinkable for a big beer. I. Want. More!

Next up, a Wild Ride! Wild ride is an IPA made with Chinook and Cascade hops. It has a big hoppy taste paired with a nice smooth finish to it. It’s a nicely done IPA that I could drink all day!

After a couple beers we headed out as we had some ground to cover. It was then that we discovered the best part of this brewery. No, it wasn’t the shiny tanks or the popcorn machine with free popcorn... An old school Donkey Kong arcade game! And it was rigged up for free play!

Sand Creek Brewing Co. was a great stop. The building, the history, the great beer, the Donkey Kong game... I’ll for sure be back during my summer Wisconsin travels. It’s a great stop!

http://www.sandcreekbrewing.com/